Kochi: Three killed in road accidents

Kochi: Three persons died in two separate accidents along the National Highway stretch here on Tuesday morning. In both cases, police suspect that the accident might have happened after the driver dozzed off.

In the first accident, lorry driver and cleaner were killed when a lorry with a heavy load of log crashed behind two lorries parked along the roadside near INTUC Junction in Nettoor.

The deceased were identified as Maria John, 50, and Rajesh, 36, the driver and cleaner respectively; both from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu. The incident happened around 4.30 am.

It was the fire and rescue officials who retrieved them from the heavily damaged lorry. Though they were rushed to a nearby private hospital, they were declared brought dead.

In the second accident, one person was killed and two sustained injur-ies when a car rammed into the pedestrians at Kottaram Junction in Maradu.

The incident happened around 7.15 am. The dec-eased was identified as R. Ramesh, 39, of Peer-made. Selanj Raj, 40, of Vaikkom, was seriously injured while A. Sivap-rasad, 47, of Karunagap-ally, was left with a fractured leg. Though they were rushed to a private hospital at Maradu where Ramesh was declared brought dead.

Police said that the car had a group of four percussionists from Vaik-kom who were on their way to perform at a temple near Kundannoor after a late night performance at another temple at Vaikom, police said. The driver of the car Rahul aka Kuttayi, 26, of Vaikkom fled the scene soon after the accident, police said.

Police sources said that Ramesh and Selanj Raj fell down into a drain one over the other after they were hit by the speeding car. Police have registered case under Section 304A (causing death by negligence) of the IPC.